why do so many women love the movie "pretty woman" and what does it says about them and the world?

prostie fairytales forevah

who the fuck likes 'pretty woman'

name names

ask around in the streets

My mom loves that movie. Not much of a cultural touchstone for any of my friends.

Except in relation to that Bongwater song.

So what does that say about your mom?

i don't know any women that like pretty woman!

it's not a movie for the intelectual elite of the world (aka friends), but for the rest 95% of the working class suburbs females it is

i remember my 14-yr-old friends liking pretty woman when we were all 14. i just thought richard gere was creepy but i liked that she got to go shopping.

where are you getting these completely implausible statistics?

intelectual elite
intelectual elite
intelectual elite
intelectual elite
intelectual elite

aka friends

talking with the people

I watched this w/ my mother when I was...about 16? She made me cover my eyes for parts and said I would understand when I was married.

Was she referring to your husband seeing prostitutes?

I'm sorry, after work I get all ... you know.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/17/friends_wideweb__470x391,0.jpg

intelectual elite

More of a touchstone:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/dancing460.jpg

plus, its on tv more often than any other movie.

Richard Gere + Julia Roberts = most justifiably hateable movie since Triumph of the Will

I think she was talking about getting head on a grand piano. Which is worrisome, because we HAD a grand piano....

zeno i know for a fact that pcu is on tv way, way more than pretty woman is.

hahahaha
xpost

I wish my marriage involved more head on a grand piano :( Right now we only have Steinway.

You guys need to learn to spell intellectual if you are to be taken seriously in formal discussion.

i find pcu to be hilarious, what does that say about me and the world?

the flashback part when jeremy piven is screaming at david spade in their dorm room!

depends where you live

yeah pretty woman is highly watchable total crap - though i could never watch it these days. wld watch dirty dancing for sure though. it was not lost on my 14-yr-old self that she was a prostitute and that this story was just plain wrong at base level b/c why the fuck was she a prostitute in the first place and should that not be addressed?? it worried me this stupid light movie about fancy dresses and limosines and richard gere's money

ilx = formal discussion

Pretty Woman was a hit. People still watch the shit out of it. And it's not hugely irresponsible to assume that most of the die-hards are women.

What does it say about them and the world? That things are pretty much as they seem.

http://centralperk.shiny-star.net/1.jpg uh xpost

Come on. Today's prostitute = yesterday's princess. I thought 'Pretty Woman' was a Disney remake.

uh

really, aren't all women whores, deep down?

An early version of the script had Vivian addicted to cocaine; part of the deal was that she had to stay off it for a week. She needed the money to go to Disneyland. Edward eventually throws her out of his car and drives off. The movie was scripted to end with Vivian and her prostitute friend on the bus to Disneyland.

you mean today's princess=yesterday's prostitude..

How deep do you want to go?

No. In serious conversation I always use spellcheck.

# Christopher Reeve was originally considered for the Edward Lewis role.

# Al Pacino also turned down the role of Edward Lewis.

Daryl Hannah turned down the part of Vivian as she felt it denigrated women.

gross
xpost

Schef I thought it was 'prostitute friend on a magic pumpkin carriage to Disneyland' please confirm.

i would see all of this daryl hannah/al pacino coke-disneyland-whore film

it's jason alexander's top career movie

why do the prostitutes need to go to disneyland? wouldn't the coke make disneyland better? why is a dude buying prostitutes and then forcing them to not do drugs? i have so many questions.

"i would see all of this ... coke-disneyland-whore film"

paul verhooven's "showgirl"

it's called showgirlS thank you very much

Don't even pay attention to THOSE PEOPLE Adam.

whatever

also al pacino was NOT in showgirls

if he was, it'd have been the best movie ever

or possibly the most disturbing ever depending on which role he took

Showgirls really needed more cowbell.

The filmmakers wanted Madonna to play Cristal Conners and Drew Barrymore to play Nomi Malone. The name card Gaye takes off the mirror when she shows Nomi her table in the dressing room even says "Drew."

Schef reference plz?

imdb.com

why did the filmmakers want her to stop doing coke when they were clearly on so much of it

# Charlize Theron auditioned for the role of Nomi Malone.

# Sharon Stone auditioned for the role of Crystal Connors.

# Gina Gershon declined to recreate the Sharon Stone leg crossing scene from Basic Instinct (1992).

# Jenny McCarthy auditioned for the lead and was very much in the running until it was discovered that she couldn't dance.

The only time actresses complained that they felt uncomfortable was during the scenes with the monkeys, who constantly stared at their bare breasts.

xp Transference.

The 'cane in Spain ...

The studios wanted Matthew McConaughey, but James Cameron insisted on Leonardo DiCaprio.

I think the correct answer is that women used to really like Richard Gere and the movie is charming.

i don't know any women who like richard gere!

The last lines spoken by Old Rose, "He exists now only in my memory," are also the last lines in the film Mad Max 2 (1981).

FACTS

yeah I don't think any women like Richard Gere. He's Brady-esque.

Kate Winslet tells Billy Zane, "I'd rather be his whore than your wife." This line was delivered earlier by Peggy Lipton to Chris Mulkey in "Twin Peaks" (1990)

MORE AMAZING FACTS

DUDES RALPH BELLAMY IS IN IT. BEST FILMZ OF ALL TIME

Ralph Bellamy vs. Bill Bellamy

After finding out that she had to be naked in front of DiCaprio, Kate Winslet decided to break the ice, and when they first met, she flashed him.

A++++++

hah I knew I loved her

that women used to really like Richard Gere

USED. Stay with him there. USED. Dude. Not, like, now. Like 17 years ago. I even liked Richard Gere back then.

i don't know any old women who like richard gere!

Poor girl / rich dude romance stories depend on vulnerability angle. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. Girl is powerless, guy will save her from bad situation and etc. shit. Appeals to young girls, women who feel trapped one way or another (who doesn't?). Maybe a retro kind of deal - remember how folks used to get all worked up over the patriarchies?

Anyway, prostitute is apex/nadir vulnerability object. Esp cute one with no visible coke habit. If there is anything she would say, it would be "rich dude save me from all this shit." Perhaps fantasy appeals to dudes, too?

But he's like, the beefy Buddhist. What do you think he did with those prayer beads?

I'm sorry, that was inappropriate. Anyway, Bob is right. I mean, it's a fantasy, right? Both Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty start off with women in worse situations than you (hopefully) were ever in, so it's a real release.

this thread is just weird

i don't like richard gere but think he was/is v handsome

kate winslet is awesome and i have always liked her

wait do people not understand what it means to be a prostitute??

you have sex with people for money which they directly pay you because you have sex with them and that is how you make money and you pay your rent with it etc

personally i wld rather wash some mean relative's floors and deal with a bunch of dwarves

See, the thing about Pretty Woman style protitution is that you don't actually have to have sex with anybody. Except maybe Richard Gere, and he's nice about it. That's why it's a comparatively better deal than the Snow White thing. I mean, Pretty Woman is so fucking coy that we have just as much reason to believe that Snow was earning her keep horizontally.

Thank you humansuit! Of course nobody likes his smug ass now.

I don't think people really understand what it means to be a prostitute. But the film doesn't ask you to really understand that, right?

"It's A Beautiful Life" doesn't want you to understand what it was to be a holocaust internist.

So you can make a fairy tale out of many situations.

that's x-post, and you're welcome!

What what? 'Life is Beautiful'. That song was running through my head and ruined this. Like I said, after work ...

Fantasy prostitution = good times, lots of shopping, implied vulnerability.

Real prostitution = 27 blow jobs and lost yr. toothbrush. Difference is subtle, yet important.

# Charlize Theron auditioned for the role of Nomi Malone.

I never lost my toothbrush when I gave blow jobs, but some people are just scatter-brained.

who the fuck ARE you people?

srsly wtf
they made her character a prostitute not a maid or a factory worker or anything that is not a prostitute fantasy or otherwise

I'm not saying you can't be offended by it sheesh I'm just discussing.

the kings of wishful thinking, clearly

xposts

my intelect is not up to speed, this evening

yeah i realize yeah hollywood in irresponsibile fantastical shocker
i still stand behind my point
xpost

BATTLEFIELD EARTH IS NOT THE TRUTH

AS IT TURNS OUT

I had to write a paper for a class once comparing this movie to Cinderella (the story, not the movie...I think Aschenputtel was the story). I never watched the movie. I said, I think "uh Cinderella wasn't a prostitute American dream blah blah," quoting from Kurt Vonnegut in Palm Sunday more than anything else.

bell labs otm

hey guys my home life fucking sucks and i'm gonna run away from home and ohno i got an abusive boyfriend and caught up in heroin and now i am a prostitute it isn't like pretty woman vs hey guys my home life fucking sucks and i'm gonna run away and go into space and hang out fight aliens or whatever the fuck battlefield earth was about
xpost

i don't actually care abt pretty woman either way, and maybe it was innocuous in the great scheme of things anyway, just making a point

I don't get that point. They suck all the realism out of prostitution vs. They suck all the realism out of war. Conceivably actually fighting a war in outer space would be pretty shitty. Do you know what I mean? Both are a reduction from the actual but you just focus more on the realism of prostitution. Anyway, I don't see why this discussion has led to the whole thing about 'who the fuck are you people' and 'otm' statements.

terribly sorry, it wasn't actually intended as a dig at you

pretty woman isn't awfully good, though

and battlefield earth clearly sucked all the realism out of, oh I don't know, I've never seen battlefield earth, is it as awful as I imagine?

What's the big stink about? This is a fucking awful, retarded movie. In other words, okay to joke about. Jeezis.

I cannot see thigh-high boots without thinking of Julia Roberts thanks to this movie's poster.

Well, I never saw it either. My statement was to the blanket reductionism in fantasy films, but I don't really care for religious movies about Captain Kirk. That's x-post,

and agree with Bob.

i thought the parallel "man movie" might be "die hard" or something, but according to this list, where "pretty women" is number 60, the correct answer is probably "transformers"(!) who's number 29..

this is list is surprising with so many movies from 2007 only...

http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross?region=world-wide

In 2007, there is more money. It's like overpopulation, but with money.

Figures are not adjusted for inflation.

I cannot see thigh-high boots without thinking of Julia Roberts thanks to this movie's poster.

otm. this impression is only strengthened if you've actually seen the movie.

haha i can't believe i missed this thread ;)

not only does gere pay her for sex, he acts like a total DICK to her almost throughout and she just keeps coming back for more

aw it really is like true love

I've never actually seen this movie, and the more I read this thread, the more I realise it's probably a good thing, and I never actually am going to.

aww i haven't read the thread but the movie is fun! it's like cotton candy

SPOILER for Kate's attn.

It's actually a good movie, totally ruined by the REFILMED ENDING WHERE THE GUY Romantically sails down her street on a boat and sweeps her away to happyeverafterland. As opposed to losing her forever because of being a dick.

i just thought richard gere was creepy but i liked that she got to go shopping.

LOLZ

hahaha that is a great quote. the scene in the store is hilarious.

i don't really get all the gere hate i thought he was kinda cute

YOu know that bit where he shows the necklace and just as she goes to touch it, he snaps it shut and they laugh...

Is that not a metaphor for the power he holds over the situation?

xpost yeah, cute but also a dick. He's the Ziggy.

http://www.galenfrysinger.ws/movies/pygmalion.JPG

what movie was it where guy tries that move closing the box on the girls fingers and shes all OOW WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT

was it the sopranos

MIKE

What is it you think I want? I'll tell you. Somebody to come along. Somebody to possess you. To take you into a new thing. Would you like that? Do you want that?

-- House of Games, 1987

haha that sounds like a metaphor to me

oh you

it wouldn't be the first time somebody's wondered that about mamet